Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is tackled by Auburn linebacker Kris Frost during the second half of the 2014 BCS National Championship game. / Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Sports

by David Leon Moore, USA TODAY Sports

by David Leon Moore, USA TODAY Sports

PASADENA, Calif. - Most of the season, college football watched in amazement as Florida State's Jameis Winston put together what looked like perhaps the greatest season a freshman quarterback ever had.

What he needed, perhaps, to confirm that was a clutch performance in a close game, because the Seminoles had won mostly laughers this season, swamping opponents by an average of 42.7 points a game in rising to a No.1 ranking and a 13-0 record.

After Monday night's heroics in Florida State's wild 34-31 victory in the BCS championship game, Winston left no doubt that he is a rare freshman.

After struggling through the first three quarters, he led two fourth-quarter touchdown drives, sandwiched around a 100-yard kickoff return by freshman teammate Kermit Whitfield, to make a triumph out of what had looked defeat for most of the night.

"It's the best football game he played all year," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. "For three quarters, he was up and down, and he fought. Anybody can do it when it's their 'A' game night. Very few can do it when it's not their night. To pull it out in the atmosphere and the environment and with what was on the line tonight, if that's not a great player, I don't know what is."

The winning drive will likely help create the lasting impression that this was one of the best BCS title games in the 16-year history of the series. With Florida State down 31-27 and needing a touchdown, starting at their own 20-yard line with just 1:11 left to play.

But Winston, who appeared confused and rattled early in the game, was rock solid, completing six of seven passes on the drive for 77 yards. The big play was a 49-yard catch and run by Rashad Greene that took the ball to the Auburn 23.

The touchdown came on a 2-yard pass over the middle to Kelvin Benjamin.

"I was ready," Winston said. "I wanted to be in that situation because that's what great quarterbacks do. That's what the Tom Bradys, Peyton Mannings, Drew Brees, that's what they do. Anybody can go out there and perform when they're up 50-0 in the second quarter. That's what you're judged by, especially by your teammates. I'm pretty sure I got more respect from my teammates and the people around on that last drive than I got the whole year."

Winston, who last month became the youngest player to win the Heisman Trophy, took the field Monday on his 20th birthday with a glowing list of credentials, having set national records for passing yardage (3,820) and TD passes (38).

He led the nation in passing efficiency and was the first freshman quarterback to lead his team to 13 wins.

But he wasn't efficient much of Monday night, completing 11 of 24 passes for 120 yards through three quarters.

"At the end of the day, he's a freshman," Auburn defensive end Dee Ford said. "I think we kind of exposed that. Very early, I saw that he was a little hesitant."

Winston was sacked four times, and he lost a fumble, but he had little trouble in the fourth quarter. His two touchdown drives improved his final-game stat line to 20-of-35 for 237 yards and two touchdown passes.

"Throughout the whole game I was uncomfortable," Winston said. "But Auburn wasn't the cause of that. It was myself. It was me wanting to do too much instead of doing what I needed to do. And when I focused and locked in and said, 'Jameis, you need to do what you need to do instead of what they want you to do. You need to do what your team wants you to do.'

"If Auburn had me rattled, I don't think we would have won the game. I have never heard of a young quarterback to be rattled and then come back at the game-winning drive. If I was rattled, I think I would have flipped out or something."

Winston joined Jamelle Holieway and Bernie Kosar as the only freshmen quarterbacks to lead their college football teams to a national championship. Holieway replaced Troy Aikman (broken leg) and started the last eight games in Oklahoma's run to the 1985 title. Kosar, like Winston, was a redshirt freshman who started all his team's games when he led Miami (Fla.) to the 1983 title.

Winston became the first freshman quarterback to lead his team to a national title in the BCS era, and his late heroics made Florida State the first team to win a BCS title after trailing at halftime.

And, he avoided the so-called Heisman curse. This was the 10th time in 16 BCS title games that the Heisman Trophy winner from that season suited up. Previously, only three of them â?? Auburn's Cam Newton, Alabama's Mark Ingram and USC's Matt Leinart â?? won a national championship.